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SOMETIMES I AM recognition for it through UNESCO world heritage sites. Zimbabwe is by global standards a very small SUCH A “FLY PERSON”: country, for example the entire area fits into the state LITERALLY… of Texas in the United States of America, leaving plenty of unoccupied space. But within that small By Dorothy C Madamba space we have 5 recognised World Heritage Sites and 3 of them are in the Western Region where we also find the Natural History Museum of Bulawayo. From my brief encounter with the world heritage site nomination process, world heritage sites are nominated on the grounds of outstanding universal value in the categories of nature and culture. This is where the documentation and research by curators of both nature and culture is useful in informing these decisions. A fellow curator and I have identified insects that fall right in the middle of nature and culture and produce outstanding value worth preserving a site for. I just had to go off on a tangent to explain why the research work by curators in all fields is phenomenal in impacting global decisions. One of the pillars of my work as an entomologist is education, being able to interpret research findings and collections into presentations, publications and exhibitions. One of the questions that always pops up after I rant and rave about how insect biodiversity is Allow me some “bragging rights” during this important, is “What is the importance of Mosquitoes?” International Year of the fly, 2019! I work in the The answer I give is more about ecosystem balance and entomology department of the Natural History how the rest of biodiversity is suffering because of our Museum in Bulawayo and in every social circle impact on the environment and the human population where I introduce myself, I have had to explain that explosion increasing pressure on the environment. In entomology is the study of insects, to which the usual 2012, we displayed an exhibition called, “Malaria, a response is a quizzical face, probably questioning Challenge for Research” in the entomology gallery my mental stability. I always want to imagine they and the content of that display showed that infant already see me running around some bush somewhere mortality in Africa is rife and Malaria took credit chasing butterflies with a net. That is only the tip for 1 million infant deaths per year, meaning that of the iceberg compared to what an Entomologist channeling resources into studying the vectors and does. Most managerial staff at the Natural History pathogens of the disease is very important. That is Museum in Bulawayo are called Curators. A curator the importance of Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are in the by definition is a “keeper, custodian or conservator of order Diptera. Insects in this insect Order are true a collection of any kind” in the museum. Part of what flies with 2 wings (I pair –the forewings) and halters curators do is to document, conserve, interpret exhibit (reduced hindwings in the shape of clubs) for balance. and communicate on the national heritage that we are responsible for, pretty fly right? Back to using my bragging rights, Class Insecta is much more ubiquitous and diverse at the species level compared to other classes of other animals. For example, there are only a little over 21 000 known described species of mammals in the world, yet globally there about approximately 1 million insect species and counting….Hyperbole? Not at all. I think only bacteria can compete with insects on the basis of ubiquity. They are everywhere performing many unique ecosystem services and also being a menace in some instances. They are all classified into about 29 Orders which form different broad fields of study. Every fly person, like myself, is called a Dipterist as they study the order Diptera and there are quite a lot Zimbabwe as a nation is very rich in both Natural and of us. In 2018 I attended an International Congress Cultural heritage and we have received international of Dipterology in Namibia, the 9th session, and was amazed at the various research areas all to do with the fly, in fact the whole year 2019 was designated International Year of the Fly, at this conference. The intention was to celebrate flies and their role in nature and human society. That they are diverse, significant, and beautiful and they affect our lives. This celebration has seen a fly species highlighted for each month. The featured January Fly in the International Year of the Fly calendar by Steven A Marshall and Asheley Kirk-Spriggs was a nectar feeding Sylogaster species (Conopidae) from South Africa, referred to as the Needle tailed, thick headed fly. I’d guess it owes its addition to the calendar to its bizarre morphology as well as the trouble systematists have had placing it taxonomically. February featured a Helina species from the Muscidae family. This featured fly represents a very large genus that includes flies that have been recorded to be attracted to cadavers and hence important to forensic entomology. March had Fly pest questions and some suggested solutions. Fruit flies are often rampant in orchards much to the a beautiful photograph of two sparring male cactus dismay of farmers and so are common houseflies. flies, Chaetonerius allaudi (Giglio-Tos) family Most of the time I get questions on how to get rid Neriidae from Mauritius, besides being significant of pests, well I am not an expert or specialist in pest pollinators, I do not dispute that these two flies may management but can certainly lend an opinion on the have been thrown in there because they just looked few notes I have picked up along the way with regards unique and beautiful. The “May fly”, excuse the pun, to flies as a domestic problem. The housefly, Musca was a parasitic fly Trigonospila species of the family domestica, can be a nuisance in the home at times, the Tachinidae from South Africa, probably incorporated first line of defense is keeping clean dry counters and because they are known to parasitise on Lepidoptera an empty dry trash can. Some even go a step further (moths and butterflies), just to mention a few. If you and wipe those clean surfaces with white vinegar. do not appreciate the biodiversity and the significance by now then let me get into a little more detail. If you want to learn more or assist us with collection of flies please feel free to send us your questions and I am such a fly person because they perform a variety inquiries through our Facebook page @UNBOXING of ecosystem services such as pollination, nutrient ENTOMOLOGY or our Facebook group “Insects of cycling through their role in decomposition and their Zimbabwe”. relationship with bacteria. Flies are contributors in the field of entomophagy, yes edible flies! There is an emerging industry producing protein supplements OUR FASCINATING for manufacturing food products that are basically GOLDEN ORB-WEB AND crushed black fly maggots. Fly maggots have also been useful in the medical field as disinfected maggots HERMIT SPIDERS have been used in wound debridement maggot therapy. This is where the maggots are introduces to a wound and held eat up the dead tissue. Contrary to popular belief, flies are very smart, always preening By Andrew Cowell themselves, unfortunately different species of flies happen to be vectors for different disease causing It was the very hot summer of 1962, when as a ten pathogens for example cholera and typhoid are caused year boy, I was in a garden at 17 J.M.M. Nkomo by Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella enterica bacteria Street belonging to Uncle Bertie, an old family respectively, which sometimes the flies help spread friend. I was fascinated by some large, scary looking around. Other vectors of diseases in both humans and web building spiders that inhabited the garden. They animals are horseflies, tsetse flies and mosquitoes. looked rather formidable with their gleaming 6mm With this section on epidemiology, I shall speak on fangs, quite visible to the naked eye, even from some behalf of the flies and say, don’t blame the messenger. distance. These spiders did not faze Uncle Bertie at We must learn to separate the vector from the actual all, he actually welcomed their presence, and called pathogen, flies are good. them “The gardener’s friend” because of the insects they ate, in many instances taking rather large prey. So welcome to the world of four species of related spiders – three large Golden orb spiders and one Hermit spider. They belong to the Araneomorphs (spiders with diaxial fangs working 180° to each other like a pair of tongs) found in the family Araneidae (Orb weavers). The Mygalomorphs, large hairy spiders rival the orb-web spiders in size, and they have fangs that strike downwards onto their prey and include the Baboon spiders, Trapdoor spiders, Purse web and Funnel-web spiders. Mygalomorphs are also long lived (up to 25years) compared to the Araneomorphs which only live for a year. There are 23 Golden orb-web spiders (Nephila) and four Hermit spiders (Nephilingis) worldwide occurring in the tropical and sub-tropical regions and of the four found in Zimbabwe the largest is The Red-legged Orb-web spider Nephila inaurata madagascariensis. The female has a body length of The Black-legged Orb-web spider, Nephila fenestrata, around 35-39mm and a leg-span of around 100mm. is the same size as the above but without the vivid Males are really small, about 5mm long with a 15mm colouring as the abdomen of the female is a lighter leg-span. brown with a single yellow band and small yellow spots.

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